Icebreaker Jake... hoping for a Tom before my hunt is done

[Oddmott]

Well, my season is all but done. Living in city, 2 hrs from my hunting properties means no weekday hunts and May being a month of birthdays for myself and my wife and a few close friends/family means no weekend hunts either :-(

This was by far the toughest turkey hunting I've experienced.

-Silent birds
-Abandoned roosts (the only birds we could roost in the evenings were on neighbouring lands)
-Low bird population (never saw even one group of birds, not even a pair!)
-High predator population (spotted 4 coyotes & 1 fox over 5 days!)

All made for plenty of frustration and long, no-action days. I did get myself that jake, so obviously i have nothing to complain about, but I am big on pushing myself to always improve and do better and had really intended to go after a tom this season... but it just didn't work out.

One other thing that was frustrating was the landowner's grandkids. They were up for extended weekends 2 weeks in a row and all they do is rip and tear around on dirtbikes and atvs and trucks. And that's cool because it's what I'd want to do if i had those toys and was visiting my grandma with tons of land too... but i'm sure it played hell on the turkeys' travel & roosting routines as well as their vocalizations.

Am i wrong?

One of the grandkids was up this past weekend to try turkey hunting for his second season. My bro and I took him out last year to show him the ropes, all the turkey signs & routines and express the basics of turkey hunting (I call them the 3 Ps) - pattern your gun and pattern your birds, show patience and be a pedestrian (WALK gawdammit!). And he ignored all of it.

He'd drive the full kilometer from the farmhouse to the field he had is blind in (parking his truck just 70 yds from the blind) and wonder why he wasn't getting good opportunities.
We tried again and again to express to him that just driving to a blind and sitting in it for a couple hours wasnt enough. Had he walked around looking for sign? Did he sneak in quietly on foot in the dark, or was he driving his noisy truck through roosting areas in daylight (we already knew the answer to this).

It all fell on deaf ears. He had a shot at a massive Tom his first morning (before the birds were wise to the truck) and missed with 3 rapid shots because he'd never bothered to pattern/range his Versa Max.

Then, on Sunday morning, I ended up spotting my jake roosting IMMEDIATELY over the old train track the kid drives down each day. Even after stressing that this bird was roosting RIGHT ON HIS PATH to his blind, and there's no way he'd ever know it by driving around everywhere, he still didn't bother to change... he drove out to his blind for his final hunt that noon-hour.

*Sighs* Oh well, we tried to help.

[werner.reiche]

Oddmott - I feel your pain - living a couple of hours from where you hunt - and I try to spend Sundays with my family. I only made it out for one morning last year - work/out of the country. Missed last weekend because I helped my daughter move (Guelph). Hope to get out Friday/Sat this weekend.

[Oddmott]

Missed last weekend because I helped my daughter move (Guelph). Hope to get out Friday/Sat this weekend.

I hope you manage to get out too Werner. I can't remember... will this be your first turkey season on the new-ish property?

[Mount Sweetness]

you won't forget that one!

[mbhunter]

Sweet pic!! Thanks for the read.